


Celebration

by zenstrike



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, smooches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 22:12:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16146605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenstrike/pseuds/zenstrike
Summary: Keith finds Lance in the closing moments of the war.





	Celebration

**Author's Note:**

> i was prompted by vale on tumblr 
> 
> from a kiss list: “‘War’s End’ Kiss”
> 
> it got away from me...again...

    The end itself is a crash.

    Or, a tear.

    Keith gets a moment—just a moment—to think: this is it. A little bubble of something celebratory in his stomach. Something like relief from Black as she cradles his subconscious, even as his mind is stretched in four other directions.

    No, not a crash, not a tear, but a snap as the tension finally breaks and Voltron crumples and then flies apart. He thinks he should have expected this, that he should have been prepared for this, and then Black is curling around him and muting the noise of the other shouting and of a hundred sirens going off inside Keith’s own head and blaring out from Black’s console. Black has to tell him to take deep breaths, in that probing way she has that feels like Shiro’s hand on his shoulder, and Keith realizes they are falling through space.

    He wrestles back control and the Black Lion jerks and stutters around him, but he chokes down the fear and the nausea and the fading sensation of the snap in his chest.

    The viewscreens crackle. Keith trembles, holding tight.

    “ _Keith_!” Hunk is yelling and maybe that’s Allura screaming, just screaming.

    He opens his mouth to reply but just coughs. Black tries and fails to soothe him. On his right, a viewscreen flickers and then steadies and he sees four dots: purple, blue, yellow, and green finally slowing to a stop. Keith blinks. Blinks again. One, two, three, four.

    “ _Lance!_ ” Allura’s voice cuts through the fog of his confusion and Keith swears his heart stops. “ _Lance—come in, Lance!_ ”

    The blue dot begins flying across the screen.

    Keith’s heart begins again, banging away.

    And then he hears a different sort of screaming, familiar even now, startling Black away just for a moment and leaving Keith with more clarity than he’s had in—

    Red, he thinks.

    “ _Keith, come on,_ ” comes Hunk’s voice again and Keith can hear him shaking and worrying. “ _Please tell me you’re there._ ”

    “I’m here,” Keith croaks, spinning. “I’m—“

    “ _Can you see the Red Lion?_ ” Pidge says, her voice so high and so young and Keith realizes they must all be feeling it.

    Snap. Like something breaking. Like something ending.

    Black, finally, drowns out Red and Keith manages not to throw up.

    “ _Keith!_ ”

    “Hang on!”

    Still only four dots.

    His search is frantic and quick and nauseating as he scans for the Red Lion, and then when he finds it, it takes him a moment to really realize what he’s seeing through the debris and the noise in his ears. Red is dim and floating, almost grey with the backdrop of the universe.

    “Got him,” Keith manages.

    “ _I’m on my way_ ,” Allura says.

    Black hums and roars around him but he forces the Lion through her own grog and they launch towards Red.

    He tries the short range communications and gets static. Red pulses at the back of his mind but fades, slowly. There’s nothing to hear as he pulls up next to Red and waits, for just a moment, to hear something. One, two, three, four, with Blue approaching rapidly. If he looked, maybe he’d catch a peek of Allura.

    He doesn’t look. He doesn’t give himself time to be afraid or hesitant.

    As he launches towards Red with space open all around him, just waiting to swallow him whole, Keith wonders: what if Allura did find him? What if they, together, found the worst? What if Keith, alone, found Lance cold and broken and bent and lifeless?

    The manual release for one of Red’s emergency ports gives easily, like Keith was never able to get it to. Lance, maybe, understands Red better than Keith had. Lance, maybe, gives more time and attention to the small parts of Red like he gives more time and attention to the nuances of the team.

    The port seals shut behind him and his helmet tells him that the life support systems are—fine. Red’s emergency lighting blinks steadily around him, like a heartbeat.

    “ _Keith_ ,” comes Hunk again, breaking the silence. His voice crackles in Keith’s ears like there’s interference.

    “I’ll tell you when I find him.”

    Pidge makes a small noise. “ _Hurry up_.”

    The lights are brighter in the cockpit and as Keith approaches he can see the viewscreens flicking in and out of sight over Red’s console. Something is beeping.

    Lance’s helmet is on the floor.

    Keith freezes.

    Snap.

    And then Lance falls into view, hard on his ass and cursing and squawking with his hair sticking every which way. A panel door swings mockingly in front of him.

    Keith holds his breath.

    Lance pulls himself to his knees and tugs a tangled bundle of wires from his wrist. He’s muttering something Keith can’t quite hear. The lights continue to pulse.

    Keith blinks.

    Lance curses some more. “Come on, Red,” he mutters and slams the panel door shut. It creaks open. Lance flips it the bird.

    And Keith laughs: just a short huff of a chuckle before he can stop himself.

    The others erupt into a flurry of confusion and panic in his ears. Lance turns his head so fast Keith worries his neck will break.

    “He’s fine,” Keith says.

    Pidge has a few choice words for Lance at that but Keith pulls off his helmet.

    Lance blinks, and then leaps to his feet.

    “I don’t know what happened,” Lance starts and he hits peak babbling by his fourth word. “Nothing’s working! There was a whole bunch of gibberish on the screens and then this _god-awful_ crunching like my teeth were falling out and then—nothing! Red’s obviously still there!” He raps at the side of his head for emphasis.

    “Yeah,” Keith says.

    “But nothing’s working!”

    Keith points at the ceiling. “The lights are working.”

    “You’re not helping.”

    Keith wishes, just for a moment, that he hadn’t interrupted Lance, that he was still watching Lance mutter and wander and wobble and be perfectly fine. But he’s also so ridiculously grateful to have Lance’s eyes on him and Lance’s voice directed at him—maybe he deflates, a little. Maybe the tension in him eases, just a little.

    Lance tries to push the panel door shut again. It creaks as it swings open. Lance rubs his temples.

    “We were worried,” Keith says. He rests his helmet against his hip and ignores the continued noise from the others. Just noise. Just babble. Keith smiles.

    Lance squints at him. “You don’t look worried.”

    “I’m guessing I look relieved.” Keith shrugs. “Because you’re not dead.” A pause. “Again.”

    “You just look like Keith,” Lance snaps and pokes at the door. He seems stuck, which is appropriate because Keith feels stuck. “Ask Hunk what to do.”

    “Okay,” Keith says easily and does exactly nothing.

    Lance squints at him some more. “Did you hit your head?”

    “Maybe.”

    Lance rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. “We should be celebrating right now,” he grumbles. “We should be, like, group-hugging and doing—goddamn—celebratory flight patterns or something.”

    “Yeah.”

    “Instead! Red is torturing me.”

    “Don’t blame Red,” Keith says and he notices that Lance’s hair is sticking to his forehead, just a little, like he’s been sweating and worrying and puttering about the cockpit for a little bit.

    He takes the two steps to Lance and drops his helmet before he can think better of it.

    Lance unfolds his arms and blinks at him.

    “Are you okay?” he says. “‘cause injured Keith isn’t much good to me right now.”

    Keith’s smile grows. “Allura’s coming.”

    Lance brightens. “Great! Maybe she can figure—“

    He breaks off as Keith’s hands settle on his shoulders. Keith hears his teeth click as Lance closes his mouth.

    “I’m glad you’re not dead,” he says and the seriousness of his own tone is enough to make Keith want to laugh.

    “That makes two of us,” Lance replies with a frown. “What are you doing?”

    Keith pushes Lance back against the mutinous panel and they stumble, just a bit, and then Lance catches his wrists and Keith feels warmth blossom all over his skin like flowers—like goddamn soft-petalled _flowers_ —and he says: “Celebrating.”

    Lance makes a noise when Keith kisses him and his hand tightens on Keith’s wrists and Keith hears fireworks. He tangles a hand in Lance’s hair and marvels at Lance’s hand on his hip and he smells the sweat and smoke of Lance’s skin and he thinks he’s melting and he thinks he might let himself, just for a moment.

    Melt.

    He pulls back. “Lance,” he starts.

    Lance shakes his head. “Why are you like this?” he mutters.

    Keith thinks Lance might kiss him, then. Keith thinks they should have been kissing ages ago. Months ago. Years.

    He tries to say this and then Lance kisses him, soft and careful and making Keith think of rain and wind and blue skies.

    When Allura finds them she rolls her eyes and berates Lance for worrying them all and Keith for his poor communication skills and Keith can’t stop smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> one two three four tell me that you love me more
> 
> i’m zenstrike on tumblr if you want to come and lay on the virtual floor with me


End file.
